This Osprey is a breeding
female - ten years old. BTO Ring number 1306910. Green
colour ring, with white letter J on left leg.
Caught on Strathspey Estates, near Boat of Garten, 17th
July 1999 and again 26th July 2000 when a new replacement
radio transmitter was fiited.

Her measurements were:
wing 530mm (524 in 1999), weight 1820g (181g in1999).This
female was ringed as a chick at nest number 68 in a
Forestry Commission forest in Ross-shire on 10 July 1991
and was a single chick, identified as female.

She has been breeding for
the last seven or eight years at nest number 57 and has
been very successful, rearing 13 young in the last 5
years. Single young have been translocated from this nest
each year to Rutland Water (until 2000) and all have
migrated successfully. In 2000, last year's mate failed
to return and S06 mated with a new male, S18.
They had three eggs and two young. In 2001 S06 mated with
S09 and produced 3 eggs. S18 then arrived late and
evicted S09. One chick hatched.

In August 1999 S06 made a
surprisingly early start to her migration and we received no
data showing whether the bird stopped on its way to Spain.

After a short stopover at
the large reservoir of Gabriel Y Galan, between the Sierras
west of Madrid, S06 moved 50km south near to
Parque
Naturel de
Monfragüe
where she stayed for over 2 months. Several accurate
locations showed that the bird was ranging around an area
about 10km square. She was seen fishing on nearby Alcantara
reservoir by Roy Dennis on 2 November. (Click
for details).

By 14 November she had
returned to the more northerly reservoir where she remained
during the winter.

By early April she had moved
back to the area of her nest site. The lengths of the legs
of her return migration were 304, 385, 587, 856km. This is a
total of 2132km in a period of 12 days - 178km per
day.

S06 returned to one of the
reservoirs where it spent much of last winter. It is
interesting to compare the southward route shown here, with
the one recorded last spring - scroll up to see that map and
details.

This journey took 17 days
and the total distance between plotted points is 2800km. On
September 18th it was seen and photographed
at the Embalse (reservoir) de Gabriel y Galan in
Extremadura. It remained there throughout the winter and we
received good quality transmissions most weeks.

By 4 April S06 was again
back in Speyside, but unfortunately we did not receive any
intemediate positions allowing us to plot her
route.During the summer, good
quality daily transmissions were received.

On 11th April, a male bird
with a satellite aerial was noted at the nest and we were
amazed to find the following day that this was the young
bird S09
from Norway, and not her last year's mate S18. They laid 3
eggs and started incubation. But on 28th April S18 arrived
back in Strathspey and evicted the young Norwegian male from
its nest site. It then stayed at the nest, and helped raise
to flying stage a single chick which was probably not its
own.

S06 returned again and bred
successfully with S18. She is now 11 years old and an experienced
breeder.
She arrived between 28th March and 3rd April, laid 3 eggs and
reared two young. We wonder if she again wintered in Spain.